Episode 46 – The attack on Smokeshell leaves 17 dead – the largest SADF loss in a single day’s combat since 1945

Welcome back to South African Border Wars with me, your host, T.S. Lephan. This is episode 46 and it's June the 10th, 1980 and Commodore DiPonage Combat Group 6-1 that huge convoy of 151 vehicles had drawn up to the east of the main target of Operation Skeptic. There was a group of more than a dozen facilities, codenamed Smokshell. Last episode we heard how DiPonage had broken up his assault force into six combined armed combat teams for the coming attack. Team 1, 2 and 3 were to launch directly from the east to the west. Our teams 4 and 5 were deployed as stopper groups on the west and side. So teams 1 and 3 moved in first just after 1300 hours and a short artillery bombardment, and they found that the defenders in the north had disappeared. And it came to the erroneous conclusion that Swapow had fled instead of wanting to fight. In a moment, Team 2 were going to find the assault at different kettle of fish entirely, or perhaps a can of worms is the better analogy. Team 1, Wonderdorf-Tracken, ended up north of their target, 800 metres north to be exact, whereas Team 3 were right on their selected facility, but both were empty of planned troops who had withdrawn so quickly that they left behind several anti-aircraft guns. As further reinforced the perception that Swapow had run away, Team 1 eventually located their target, which, as I said, was deserted and made sure the trenches and bunkers to the north were empty, then regrouped. Some of the Swapow fighters were spotted and a fire fired broke out, six Swapow would killed. Meanwhile, Team 2, which was led by Captain Louis Harmser, comprised of B company of mechanised infantry, supported by Rathal 90s and mortars, were heading directly towards the main southern end of this network of bases at Smokshell. So here, a lot more about Captain Harmser and coming episodes. Unfortunately, he was to join his father and the pantheon of those who were to give their lives fighting for the country. Right now, he led Team 2's, they approached the southern Smokshell complex. At first, they managed to move fairly swiftly through the bush. That was before they ran into a well-setup Swapow defensive position that intelligence seemed to have missed. Captain Harmser followed the training discipline for mechanised infantry and divided his force. One was a fire support group of Rathal 90s, a mortar platoon, and a mechanised infantry platoon from B company. And the second was an assault group of two mechanised infantry platoons. The support group would lay down fire and move to Art Flank Swapow, other infantry platoons would storm the enemy in their dagged positions. Captain Harmser radioed for artillery support, but before they could find their range, the fire support group walked straight into Swapow anti-aircraft gun positions, that were camouflaged in the bush, and which proceeded to lay down a withering fire. Neither the mortar platoon nor the Rathal 90s were in a position to help the infantry, and things turned into a fight for survival for the South Africans. The Rathal 90s were firing the main guns straight ahead into the bush in close quarter combat, at targets that were sometimes closer than 30 metres away, while the drivers manoeuvred their large vehicles around, driving over Swapow defenders. The mortar section simply dropped their parps and opened fire as infantry. While all of this was going on, the assault group moved forward unaware of the carnage, taking place a short distance away. Swapow soldiers were running about, adding to the scene of chaos and convincing the group that the enemy was indeed running away. The mechanised assault group rushed forward straight into an opening or a shona, where the cheese and bush didn't grow, and it was here that all hell really broke loose. At least three Swapow 14.5mm anti-aircraft guns opened up, as well as an extremely powerful and feared 23mm, which sprayed the Rathals with deadly fire. Several were hit in quick succession, and Corporal Garith Rutherford in one is quoted by Leopold Scultz. Then it happened, not tack tack tack anymore but doof doof, about three per second, heavy automatic fire. They saw the huge anti-aircraft guns, four barrels, eight feet high, the five man crew at point blank range, cutting through the Rathals like butter. Their idea of troops were trapped, and began to be picked off by these heavy weapons. Rathaman Marco Coforio said afterwards that, "Our Rathal was hit, suddenly everything went into almost slow motion. Stephen Cronier turned in his seat and opened the hydraulic doors for us to get out. That's when I saw he had been hit in the chest." Traces were bouncing inside the Rathal, and they all realised they were facing heavy calibre guns, their arms passed straight through the armoured vehicle's skin. At least two men from the Rathal were already dead as Rathaman Coforio tried to return fire. Another trooper, Fender Fafo, was yelling at Coforio to get down, and then he realised that everyone else in his Rathal had remained inside because they were all dead. Lieutenant Paul Lowe, who commanded two platoon, saw many of his men hit and later, the casualty figure would be revealed. The 17 South Africans died on this day, the largest loss in the SID of history in a single day's combat since 1945. The survivors were on foot now and began fighting back, including Rathaman Andrew McLean, who picked up a brand machine gun and shot down a swamped crew of one of the 23mm AA guns. The big problem for Captain Hadam Saratna was that neither his assault group nor his support group could work in tandem, they were split up. Their training doctrine called for mutual action, but each was now fighting directly for its own survival. Hadam Sarat was told to report to DiPanar behind the action, leaving his men to fight on. Once DiPanar heard about Team 2's predicament, he acted fast, ordering the Reserve Team 6 and a major job swat to head into battle in an attempted rescuing the situation. Around 50 men and more than half a dozen Rathals and other armoured vehicles were pinned down in the casualty raid, was climbing. Team 1 meanwhile and the Paul Fushir, which had completed that sweep in the north, were then ordered southwards at 1600-30 to reinforce Team 2. The elans of Team 300, Jax Jakobs, moved in behind to form a new reserve. By the time Team 6 approached the Rathal 90s that had been hit by the anti-aircraft guns, it looked like an abattoir. The 23mm cannon arm-appearing rounds had made short work of these Rathals, slashing through everything and chopping up the occupants inside. It was not a pretty sight. One of the drivers had been plastered against the front window, another had his arm blown off and medics were trying to stem the bleeding. Major Swat managed to collect the bodies of some of the South African dead and loaded these on his illan and Rathal armoured cars, but as he moved back, they ran into another contact. The armoured vehicles didn't stop though, they managed to fire their way out of trouble and despite too losing their way, they made it too relative safety. One of the lost vehicles was located shortly afterwards, but the second Rathal was forced to spend that night out in the bush the fearful crew expecting a Swapar attack at any second. As Major Paul for sure of Team 1 withdrew, he ran into yet another ambush. Swapar was fighting for all its worth and the SID of troops were completely surprised by the aggressive defence. All the gung-ho boasting of the last few days dried up as DiPanoi began to count the cost, but like all good soldiers, he did not panic, he was thinking clearly. The ordered Yarkov's illness of Team 3 forward his last throw of the dice, his reinforcements. Meanwhile, for sheer managed to pull back around 200 metres, disengaging from the ambush, then art flanked his enemy on the left, while Yarkov's armoured cars provided heavy support with their 19-millimeter guns. Finally, the South Africans were gaining the upper hand. It was almost a textbook maneuver aided at that very moment by Empire 2 ground support aircraft. The missile strikes eviscerated the Swapar fighters in the ambush zone. Two prisoners were the Enceased and with their blood up, some of the SID of Infantry wanted to shoot them in cold blood. But Constant Fulyun who'd survived the attacks and Yarn DiPanoi were very clear about what would happen to anyone who did this. Shoot at or touch those people and you'll be caught marshaled, Fulyun told the junior Encios who wanted revenge. Once the prisoners taken he or she turns into an important asset. You're not fighting like an animal, a monster, the soldier is not a thoughtless beast, you're fighting for political aims and survivors' resources of information. Once they defeated many would end up turning into soldiers fighting for the South Africans. The senior officers wanted information. Two more dead men was just a momentary emotion, ultimately unsatisfying and tactically clueless. For those who have not experienced these things, this sounds strange, but you must realize that those of us who fought are not motivated by hate. That is a base emotion for the weak. It gets you into lots of trouble if you pay to fight. It's intellectually bereft, excuse me, signing off at this point. But we fight to win, not just to kill. Without resorting to too much information, let's just say I have excellent knowledge of how useful a defeated enemy can be when he or she becomes your ally. In this case, the two POWs who were saved from cold blood and murder were going to provide the SCD of information about other targets nearby, and then warned the South Africans of traps. So this final assault by Yacob's and the Impala's broke Swapo's back. And at 1,700 hours 30, comms intercepted a Swapo radio message which said, "We tried, but lost conduct of controlling the troops, went the Swapo message. We are evacuating." However, as with all things in these sorts of battles, Swapo had not left the area completely. When the SCD began to move southwards of Smokshel to prepare for the night, they ran into a classic L-shaped ambush. Unfortunately for Swapo, the SCD was prepared partly because the POWs had warned about these kinds of ambush. Maximum firepower was brought to pair on the Swapo position, within 20 minutes it was over in this time, the fighting ended for the night. The S.A.D. of survivors of this violent day barely slept, fingers on their triggers because most expected and imminent counterattack that night, it never came. The next morning, the 11th of June, the sun rose over a smoking scene of chaos uttered distraction. Bodies lay scattered, vehicles were burning or smoking, pits of the flotsam and jetsom of battle were strewn across a broad area of the bush. The men of Battle Group 61 were exhausted, but they weren't done. Fortunately, the two companies of parent troopers now arrived. These were the men who were supposed to have been chopped in from limber, but fuel remember was not available for the humans. And so they made the long trip by lorry. They mopped up the area. By now 61 Mac vehicles were also beginning to run out of fuel and ammunition. Some of the Irlands were already being towed. Combat Group 1-0 and the Chris Serpentine also arrived during the morning and began searching for intelligence and survivors. This would take a few days. Something now also happened that the army leadership had been dreading and it involved General Constantine volume. Commodan Dippenar thought it an ideal moment to move his headquarters, but as his command Rathal shifted position, it detonated a double tank mine throwing the vehicle into the air. In Santa Rathal was General Constantine volume. Somehow he survived, but back at operations headquarters in Yenhana across the Cutland, SWA Commander Heldenhase had been told of the incident but not of the general's condition. After some time it emerged that Fulyun was shaken, but otherwise fine, he dodged a bullet, so to speak. But he still ignored suggestions that as the top ranking general in charge, he shouldn't really be exposing himself to imminent danger. Within two days and by early afternoon of the 13th of June, Smokshell was free of swap and the SEDF renowned methodically searching through the large base complex. A total of 267 planned fighters had died and the bodies were buried, while 10 anti-aircraft guns and a large pile of ammunition and other materiel were seized. 17 South Africans had died, two dozen or more were wounded. The next part of the operation was supposed to be an immediate attack on Yonder, but it was decided to move 61 mech back to Mulemba, further south, then conduct local operations there instead. Throughout the next few days there were continuous skirmishes, for example Combat Group 1-0, ran into an enemy rearguard north of Zangongo. Empires were overhead in their strafing along with accurate mortar fire led to another swap of retreat. Documents were found along with 76 millimeter guns and other war material which was dragged back to South West Africa. By now Lieutenant General Hellness was leading a force clearing the territory at the tail end of operations skeptic. They were supposed to join up with a group 1-0 and then head back to the Cutland, but then something both the South Africans and the Angolan had not expected took place. Group 1-0's mechanized infantry moved through the village of Mongua on the way to Rondervu, Hellness and its commander Chris Serpentine was not aware that a significant Angolan fapler mechanized force was concentrated in that village. The Angolans and the South Africans were surprised as there's each other as the SED of advanced party and buffles bumped into the fapler units. The Angolans responded by charging three Russian BTR-152 armored personnel carriers straight at the South Africans, but they were not taught in swift succession. Serpentine was on the radio immediately to the SAF force and luckily Mirage's were close by offering air to ground support. And during the period of skeptic, AKI smoke shell and the mopping up ops afterwards, an impala light jet bomber had been shut down along with an elevated three chopper. The cost was going up. On the 20th of June, Lieutenant Neil Thomas was flying a close support mission over Angola and his impala was hit by a 23 millimeter anti-aircraft shell. The shrapnel hit the lower nose and debris passed through the engine's compressor. He lost power and the plane lost altitude rapidly before hitting the treetops just as Thomas ejected. Luckily, he was picked up swiftly by search and rescue and flown to a helicopter support area inside Angola near the town of Ivali. But the Aloids engine air filter had picked up dirt during the landing and was forced to conduct an emergency landing itself on the way. The crew managed to clear the air filter and got away in time just ahead of Fappler, which was searching for the impala pilot. Then on the 23rd of June, an Aloid III crewed by Captain Tina's from the Lensberg and Sergeant Guercellius was hit by anti-aircraft fire near Zangonga. The Aloid was brought down and the two-man crew managed to escape the burning wreckage, but then Celerus was hit by AK ground fire and killed. Somehow, Fren Rensberg managed to escape and reach safety on foot. He was eventually found by South African ground forces near Guamato, suffering from compression fractures of his vertebra, superficial wounds and dehydration. So it's time to conduct the inevitable debriefing of this operation. Swapour had lost about 75% of its immediate transport capacity due to the vehicles being blown up or burned. Documents were found revealing some of Swapour's future plans. Their morale had been further dentured, but these were all short-term gains for the South Africans. Following the operation, top brass debriefed, white-haired operations sceptic achieved. Commodan Dippinar was the most vocal about one weakness in particular, relatively poor intelligence reports. There was some uncertainty about the nature of the target. It was far more sprawling and spread out than they'd been led to believe. They knew they were around 13 complexes, but they had no idea how many planned fighters were inside each. The basic premise of tactical fighting is having a clear idea about the composition of your enemy. The SRDF didn't. They also didn't know how well the enemy had dug in, thinking Swapour would be in shallow foxholes when, in fact, there were defending positions that included large bunkers and a system of trenches. That is what caused Team 2's biggest problem as they were pulverized by the anti-aircraft weapons intelligence had been inaccurate. Furthermore, when air attacks took place, they merely forewarned Swapour of the ground attack. These were not coordinated properly, whatever, but the SRDF and SRFers have said since. By bombing the target's hours before the ground forces arrived, it gave the defenders time to prepare instead of being part of a one-two punch. Instead, the air raids gave Swapour time to count to 10, and by the time the ground forces arrived, they were back on their feet and well ready. Captain Louis had a few words to say about this, so two yaks yaks. Perhaps the most important thing to state was how the SRDF had underestimated Swapour. They thought planned fighters would drop their weapons and run, but in places as Team 2 found out, planned forward to back. When teams 1 and 3 began sweeping Smokshell, Swapour had indeed withdrawn from the north, but only to concentrate their actions in the sap, fighting courageously in some cases to the last man. The 14.5mm and 23mm crews did not run. They remained at their stations, aiming deadly fire into the SRDF rifles until they were all killed. Other challenges had surfaced, such as the Yelun center rifles and infantry becoming lost in the thick bush, almost like being surrounded by a sea of green, and the land as flat as a pancake. They needed to improve navigation, but remember this was still before GPS. Turning to equipment, it was also apparent that the 7.62mm R1 rifle, the version of the Belgian FN, was not suitable for mechanised operations. It was brilliant, I carried one around for two years. Its stopping power is legendary, and it's very accurate over short medium and long range, but it's too big to wield inside a rifle or on the back of a buffle, and most of the fighting was not long range. It was taking place at extreme short range in dense bush. A lighter automatic weapon with a higher rate of fire was needed. It was time to introduce the 5.56mm R4, an adaption of the Israeli Galil, which featured a folding stock, and was introduced shortly after Smokshell in 1980, and is still being used as the standard SA Defence Force automatic rifle today. Turning to vehicles, the Irland was not suited to this kind of deep insertion. Its petrol powered, and its range was considerably less than the Rattles, which burns diesel, 300 kilometers versus 800 kilometers. Sometimes the embarrassed Irland commander would end up being towed by the Rattles in operations with fuel supply logistics, with challenges, big brother towing the naughty car. This idea for artillery was still World War II vintage, the McGitter's Deutsche Gan Tractor's broke down. They overheated, plans were well underway though to fix all these problems with the remarkable G5 on the way. Finally we must assess the overall strategy. As the SAD of Topras swung about at media conferences boasting that skeptic was a great success. Behind these death stats was a contradiction. This was not a conventional war, despite all these figures, these machines, this war material, these motorized troops. This was a non-conventional war against insurgents at guerrilla war. It was ultimately dirty, it was on foot, underground like Vietnam, soldiers were soldier, grunt versus grunt. Agreed, Swapu's casualty rate was high, but in the long run they were not really weakened. Like water flowing downhill, Swapu would return from the north to their shattered bases in the south. Their idea could not hold them because their political leadership was playing two games, trying to keep Western nations on their side while keeping Swapu away. It was, unfortunately, one or the other, and therefore the strategy was wrong, the idea was to win a war. The political leadership in Pretoria failed to fully comprehend that tens of thousands of Black youths were willing to fight for their freedom and die for Swapu, So a few thousand casualties a year. was chicken feet in this broad equation. Moscow was still pumping arms and advises into Angola and training Swapu. Worse, within a year the SA Air Force, which had been operating without serious airborne opposition, was to begin facing a far more organized opponent. Then one of the main strategies to push Swapu away from southern Angola and buffer ofumberland, that failed too. Jelaa saw 65 planned fighters killed in an escalation. Three two battalions suffered a serious incident in the same month near Cuomato, where the Impala had been done. A platoon from three two were following up an earlier contact near the town when they discovered a bunker. After three M26 grenades that were lobbed in failed to destroy the structure, the platoon commander decided a "chapter man" on the roof would do the job. So Copporal Chrobler entered the bunker to plant the mine while Copporal Kutziah stood at the door. But the bunker was buried. And the explosion killed both Chrobler and Kutziah. Second Lieutenant Slubber and Smith as well as Copporal's "Burta, Brink, and Flock" were all hit by Shrapnel in the upper and lower legs. They were casavacked, but Jelaa had been a bad month. In August 102 planned fighters were shot in numerous contacts. That rose to 170 in September. That was hardly a drop off in Swapu action after Smokshell. In fact, it was the exact opposite. By the end of 1980, 1,175 ambushes, contacts, detonating mines, accident timidation and sabotage had taken place inside South West Africa, the most recorded in the territory ever. More than 1,100 planned fighters had been killed, and yet a major strategic question needed answering. What percentage of Swapu's total force was that casualty figure? 20, 50. Intelligence reports were proving remarkably inaccurate. Without clarity about these numbers, continuously throwing mechanized forces into action for a few hundred deaths doesn't appear to be a particularly clever strategy. Yes, it does the morale of the commanding officers a lot of good, and the national party doting voters feel much better. As Vladimir Putin is going to find out in his planned assaults on the Baltic states and Ukraine, trying to control the nationalist propaganda message by committing an external war tends to backfire when those you are attacking are nationalists themselves. That's because the people you invade tend to circle back when you're not looking and slit your throat because they have time. They are from the land and they are going nowhere. Military strategy tells us it's the invader who must always make a decision and that and that by implication has a deadline. Swapu had nowhere to go, but an imbibian future. The SADF did not belong there and both sides knew it, so the military strategy was just about pushing an inevitable deadline back. But buying time with blood is not a successful strategy unless you have that time on your side and for the apartheid government, it was starting to run out. So right now it's time to halt and dig in for the night. Thanks to those sending me advice and comments, some former special forces, and others fighting in armies worldwide. Some retired. Thanks again to Nick by the way of wardogactual.uk. I'm wearing your t-shirt you sent me right now. Please head over to my website abwarpodcast.com. There's a link to send emails if you want to chat, or you can direct message me on twitter @teasley. Until next, passepeite.